Over 300 young monks forced out of monastic school
The school at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery remains under risk of closure after mass explusion of student monks
Over 300 young monks studying in a Buddhist school had to disrobe and were forced to join government school as lay students this month. Their school remains under the risk of shutdown in fall this year.
The monks at the Buddhist school of Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge County were ordered this month to join government-run schools, which required them to disrobe and become lay students. The order came from the Dzoge County government.A source told Tibet Watch that the authorities are planning to close the monastic school in September.
Parents of the affected children were asked to sign a document that cited Chinese law on the protection of minors, and stated that those who receive this admission notice must prepare to send their children to school when the school year restarts on 1 September 2024.
The document signed by parents further stated that they would not enroll their children to the monastery until they reach 18 years of age, a requirement set by the Chinese government which breaks the age-old tradition of giving Buddhist training to monks and nuns from a young age.
The mass expulsion of the student monks comes a month after the authorities of Dzoge County denied parents’ requests to allow monastic education with accusations of brainwashing.
“In May 2024, parents of those young, student monks requested the relevant authorities of the county to allow their children to rejoin their monastery’s school as per their wish and choice,” said a source, “but the [Dzoge County] authorities denied their request and said those parents were brainwashing their children!”
The Buddhist school has not closed yet. In addition to the 300 young students affected by the county government order, it also currently has around 200 monks who are not minors.
Since 1986, Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery has been giving special courses (རིག་གནས་ཆེད་སྦྱོང་སློབ་ཁྲིད།) to young monks before teaching them Buddhist studies. In 1993, the monastery built the Taktsang Lhamo School of Tibetan Culture (སྟག་ཚང་ལྷ་མོ་བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་སློབ་གྲྭ།) but it was forcibly closed by Chinese authorities in 2003. The monastery afterwards managed to establish Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery’s Elementary Buddhist school (སྟག་ཚང་ལྷ་མོ་ཀིརྟི་ནང་བསྟན་སྔོན་འགྲོའི་སློབ་གྲྭ།). Restrictions have however continued as with all monasteries in Tibet since 2008.
This local government order comes in the context of waves of restrictions on Tibetan private and monastic schools, with several of them being forced to shut down as Chinese authorities take tighter control of education in Tibet.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
